Luchini - Finkielkraut, when two great men admire each other

News Mondays - Jonas Follonier

There are moments on television that are true live gems, moments of intelligence and intimacy that enhance the viewer. The show The Big Bookshop on France 5 on October 26, moved me so much that I witnessed a great moment on the small screen.

The show, presented by the excellent host François Busnel, featured Fabrice Luchini. This French comedian, who has become a household name, came to talk about his new show, «Des écrivains parlent d'argent». Surprisingly, the neurotic star didn't go into the hysterical (and delicious) delirium to which he's become accustomed on television. Luchini was serene, yet never disguised as normal.

A perfect attitude for chatting with the first guest to join him on stage: Alain Finkielkraut. The philosopher and academician was the one who insisted that Fabrice Luchini include Charles Péguy in one of his shows. This has now been achieved with «Des écrivains parlent d'argent», in which Péguy rubs shoulders with Céline, Marx and Bruckner. Finkielkraut also invited Luchini to take part. on his show Replicas, on France Culture, to talk about it.

Luchini, on Busnel's show, returned to this episode: «It was Alain Finkielkraut who made me understand Péguy, who informed me.» One senses the actor's deep respect for the philosopher, mingled with an admiration that Finkielkraut returns. It's rare to see Finkielkraut smile so much, just as it's rare to see Luchini stand back, his attention totally focused on his interlocutor.

The discussion, moderated by François Busnel, was also an opportunity to break with the reactionary, «old fart» image that some in the press have attached to Alain Finkielkraut. Luchini was keen to testify to his own experience with the intellectual: «Nobody knows how funny he is, how touching he is, and how sympathetic.» It is important that public figures such as Luchini dispel the misunderstanding surrounding the author of Unhappy Identity.

That question aside, a meeting between two people of such quality is bound to produce some golden reflections, flashes of insight into their shared passion: literature. When Finkielkraut puts himself in Flaubert's shoes to talk about his vision of the novel, the result is: «It is the alliance of beauty and truth that makes prose great. Luchini, also deeply influenced by this major writer, quoted one of his most astounding phrases: »So I'm going back to my poor life, so flat and quiet, where phrases are adventures.«

Another passion shared by the three men on stage, and intimately linked to literature: language. If there's one thing Alain Finkielkraut would like to see safeguarded first and foremost, it's the French language, at a time when it's being increasingly abused. «Even actors, sometimes, when they come off stage, speak any old way.» The philosopher naturally contrasts this behavior with that of Luchini, one of the few who still inhabits the language and makes us love it.

These television moments are unique for the intellectual emotion that emanates from them. An emotion that the two sixty-something Frenchmen discover in each other; an emotion that they share for literature, and for a French school that no longer exists; an emotion that Finkielkraut detects in the leftism to which he belonged in May 68, and which he reflects on with a nostalgia tinged with a certain humor; an emotion, finally, that Luchini displays in the face of his new friend's courage and lucidity.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Capture d'écran YouTube